Censorship of Naruto: Shippūden in Australia

Naruto: Shippūden aired on Cartoon Network Australia in 2011 after many years since the original Naruto series ended. Until then, the series had been re-aired several times, strangely excluding the Chūnin Exam arc for all reruns except for one. Upon release, Naruto: Shippūden had experienced a few instances of censorship, though minor. These instances of censorship were very different in the style of that found in other shows, as the material found objectionable would often render the scene choppy and confusing if removed. Most of it was contained within the intros and outros of specific arcs, therefore if the censors were to remove these by simply cutting out the video, it would not only disrupt the music playing, it would also inadvertantly erase some of the credit from those who worked to make it, which may result in legal disputes arising. Strangely enough, and what makes Naruto: Shippūden's censorship unique to the rest, is that all continuous edits were made seperately, instead of reusing already-edited footage. This would cause different unintended effects to occur, depending on the episode in question, such as different intro lengths. Unfortunately, due to the single and possibly final airing of the series, it is impossible to accurately test the episodes for cases of censorship, as airing ended straight after the episode "Title". Therefore, all examples have been provided from memory. Edits which span over multiple episodes will be listed first per arc, while individual episodes will succeed.

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In the intro sequence, a scene where Sasuke Uchiha is seen being embraced nude by a large snake is removed, causing sync issues with the music which were only remedied by making the music end early. This was done by fading it out as it reached the end of the intro, which caused one of two different possibilities, depending on the episode: the music would fade out as soon as the intro ended, or it would fade out at about a second before it was supposed to end.

All scenes with Sakura Haruno being stabbed through the gut by Sasori with a katana were removed, as well as shots with the katana in her gut. However, long shots of the scene were left, as they would be seen as more ambiguous. As well as this, scenes where dialogue is being spoken were zoomed into the face or full body of the speaker in question.

The edit affecting the episode 'Puppet Fight: 10 vs. 100!' also apply. However, during the scene directly succeeding the intro, in which Chiyo administers her antitoxin to Sakura, a large censor blob was placed over it, which not only obscured the wound, but her surrounding hands as well.

Within the outro, the scene in which Naruto (in his four-tails Jinchūriki form) is embraced by topless, chibi-style versions of Sakura and Hinata Hyūga is censored, having the visible part of Hinata's breast covered up with a censor blob. As well as this, the following image containing Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yūhi was altered to exclude Asuma's lit cigarette, covering it as well with a censor blob. In both instances, the censor blob was edited in uniquely every episode, resulting in differing shapes. For example, there were a few instances were the Hinata censor blob not only covered her breast, but a large part of her left hip, and sometimes a small portion of her arm.

Any scene within the female side of the bathhouse which had a woman in it was cut, save shots in which Sakura was on the screen, where it was zoomed into her face. This was done to remove any reference to nudity, however this was strangely not done during scenes depicting the male side. The scene where the dividing fence is in the foreground and all the bathgoers are laughing was zoomed further into the fence with a few of their heads been seen, to erase the image of cleavage without using censor blobs to make it too obvious.